Saturday, November 12, 2005

West Coast Love-In (1967)First, let me be the first to say that this post may be meaningless to anyone but me. Its subject matter is a 1967 long playing record album (aka record, disk, platter) titled, "West Coast Love-In". I've owned this LP for so long I can't remember exactly when I bought it, but I do remember I got it dirt cheap because it was recorded in "mono" and mono records were definitely out and stereo records were in at the time. I probably paid around a dollar for it. That was a pretty common price for mono records at the end of the mono age ( around 1970). The vital statistics on this record are as follows:title: West Coast Love-In (1967)record label: Vaultrecord number: Vault LP/SLP 113mode: monocover artist: Rick & Ida Griffinartists: The Ashes, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, The Chambers Brothers The front cover of this record is as classic an example of "Summer Of Love" art as you are going to find anywhere. It features a couple dressed in American Indian-style clothing resting against a tree, while the title and names of the artists swirl in Barnun & Bailey type letters above them. On the back cover are "reprints" from the Los Angeles Free Press with quotes like: " What is a Love-in? It seems to depend very much on your point of view. To the literal-minded, Sunday's gathering from dawn to 10p.m. in Elysian park was a kind of pagan rite of spring and fertility dance held coincidentally on the day on which Christians celebrate Easter. It was 20,000 people (the daily papers pegged it at 5,000 to 8,000) gathered for a picnic on the open under a leadened sky to go through a number of mystic life ceremonies, who danced to an endless series of electric rock bands, exchanged love gifts, got to know each other as never before in this gem city of 20th Century isolation." Based on this, you would expect the music on this record to be down right revolutionary and rebellious. While the three cuts by The Chambers Brothers are borderline bluesy (except for tons of echo), the remaining cuts by The Ashes, and The Peanut Butter Conspiracy are about as threatening as a Carpenters record. The funny thing is, I'm old enough to remember those days; and, believe it or not, at the time many people from that generation actually thought this music was dangerous, rebellious, and revolutionary. Every couple of years or so I drag out this record in the hope that when I play it I will hear some lost gem that proves how hip and happinin' we really were back in those days. But, it always ends up sounding like the Carpenters, so I put it away for a couple of more years. The message being maybe it would be wise to evaluate the things that are currently cool, in, hip, etc. a little bit closer because down the road what should be a nostalgic look back may in fact turn out to be a skeleton in the closet. Of course, I might not have a clue about what I'm saying. I just looked up"West Coast Love-In" Vault LP/SLP 113 on the Internet and found out it is selling for as much as $50 a copy. Never mind.

1 Comments:

Maybe it was a little more classic than previously thought, the same way eggs have 1/3 less cholesterol than previously thought...or not. But what you said about evaluating today's hip music/trends/etc. was good; it seems difficult to find the modern things that are 'classic', but those are the elements that seem to withstand the test of time, as it were.